An Italian Renaissance dynasty that produced four popes (Leo X, Clement VII, Pius IV and Leo XI), two queens of France (Catherine de Medici, who married Henry II, and Marie de Medici, who married Henry IV) and a long line of rich, powerful bankers who virtually ruled the city-state of Florence.
Outstanding among the latter were Cosimo de Medici ( 1389-1464), who established the family's political power, and his grandson Lorenzo de Medici (1449-92), who became known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo was a Renaissance Man.: a statesman who through diplomacy promoted the unity of Italy; a poet, dramatist and literary critic; a banker with business interests throughout Europe. Furthurmore, he was a dedicated patron of the arts, subsidizing genuises like the philosopher Pico della Mirandola, and the painters Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Verrochio, Della Robbia and the young Michaelangelo.
If the Borgias are remembered for their evil, the Medicis are remembered for their cultivation of the arts. They were Renaissance princes in the grand style.
Use: "The new industrialists were America's Medici's, and they dictated American policies as surely as those Italian bankers had owned popes and principalities..." (Kenneth Davis, Don't Know Much About History)
~Facts on File
|
